As promised, Chinese knock-off maker Meizu has thrown down the gauntlet at Apple with the official announcement of a new site that promotes the venerable M9, their controversial iPhone lookalike.

The M9 appears to match iPhone 4 in key specs while challenging Apple’s handset with a supposedly cheaper price point. It’s not just the hardware and the design, the M9 also mimics iOS with a custom user interface theme.

A brief glance reveals that the M9 boasts a high-resolution display (apparently the Sharp ASV) and a five-megapixel camera. It also supports the latest 3G GSM standards and WCDMA, which is the basis of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA service. Here’s a bulleted list of M9’s eye-popping specs:

dimensions: 59.8 × 113.0 × 11.2mm

weight: 123 grams

GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA

1GHz S5PC110 ARM Cortex-A8 processor similar to that found in the Samsung Galaxy S

hardware-accelerated 3D graphics

3.5-inch capacitive multitouch display that matches the 960 x 640 resolution of the Retina Display found on iPhone 4

The M9 is scheduled to land on store shelves in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen on December 25. The company will follow-up with a nationwide roll out a few days later. There was no word of a possible US launch at press time.